The present invention relates to a rotary column type reactor comprising a rotary column loaded with immobilized enzyme or carriers for specific adsorption of minor constituents or the like contained in a liquid and a reaction vessel housing therein said rotary column.
To collect the minor constituents in a given liquid, it is known to load packed bed or fluidized bed type column or agitator bath with carriers in order to adsorb the minor constituents on said carriers and thereafter to desorb these minor constituents from the carriers for collection thereof.
However, in the packed bed reactor, the carriers tend to become densely packed, resulting in increased pressure loss. Particularly when a large quantity of sample is fed through the packed bed reactor, the reactor of this type makes it difficult to control a flow rate, causes a channeling flow and thereby decreases the adsorption efficiency.
In the agitator bath, on the other hand, a contact efficiency between the carriers and the minor constituents or the like contained in the solution is improved but violent agitation tends to damage the carriers and requires much time and labor for collection of the minor constituents or the like.
Accordingly, members forming part of the present invention proposed, as a system solve such problems and include a reactor comprising a rotary column loaded with immobilized enzyme as disclosed U.S. Pat. No. 4,242,450.
In this reactor of prior art, an outer net surrounding the column must be removed before respective compartments are loaded with carriers, since said compartments are partitioned by plates. When it is desired to use fine carries, meshes of the net surrounding the rotary column must be correspondingly fine. In such case, the net prevents smooth deaeration of the rotary column. When a solution is fed through the rotary column from outer periphery thereof to the centre of the shaft or reversely from the centre of the shaft toward the outer periphery, and particularly when the solution is fed through the rotary column in the former direction at high flow rate, an accumulation of the carries formed around the shaft becomes thicker as the distance from the solution outlet increases and prevents the solution from uniformly flowing among the carriers. As a result, the contact efficiency between the carriers and the solution is lowered.